The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Melheimian Maxim 15: Home

Some people work to give their kids a car so they can get away. I'd rather work to give my kids a home that they'd like to stick around so their friends have a place hang out with their new cars.

 

Melheimian Maxim #14: Legacy

If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to how we want our children to remember us that we give to the question of what to do with two weeks' vacation, we would overnight become better parents and over time become the kind of partner that we always dreamed we'd be.

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Credentials vs Competence

In the last eight days I enjoyed the hospitality of folks in Denver and Northridge, CA on the Bible Song tour. I also taped sign language with Christy Smith in Aspen, enjoyed the hospitality of an amazing mountain retreat above the city, enjoyed the company of a family of former parishoners in Snowmass, seen the strange "Babel" and the bloody "300" with my son, hit my head harder that I've hit it since high school football out on the slopes of Copper Mountain, driven the Pacific Coast Highway on a spectacular morning, and shared a cup of coffee with James Creasy of the Episcopalian "Living the Good News" in Denver and Bill Greig III of "Gospel Light" in Ventura, CA.

In the midst of the conversations, the concepts of credentials vs competency came up. I ran home and dug out the cartoon of Len Sweet I did a couple years ago after spending some time with him and his minions at his beautiful home in the islands between Washington State and Vancouver.

The talk bounced around education, degrees, doctorates, and actually getting things done. Here's the jest of it:

If you're thinking of getting another degree, ask yourself "what for?" If the answer is "to get people to open doors for me..." then you should probably rethink who is in charge of your life. Letters on a wall don't really seem to matter all that much in this post-institutional, a-literate (we can read... but don't), "old-world-rules-are-only-rules-to-people-who-allow-themselves-to-be-dictated-by-them" world.

What matters is competence, not credentials. What matters is, can you get the job done?

Open your own doors. Don't sit around waiting for someone to open them for you. Build your own ship. Don't sit around waiting for someone elses' ship to suddenly sail into your harbor.  Make your own breaks. Don't sit around waiting for someone to give you one.  Write your own rule-book. Don't live in the limitations someone else has set up for you.

Either you're going to happen to life, or life is going to happen to you.

If you need letters on a wall to give you permission to do what you know you need to do, you're always going to be in a cage.

Don't wait to be discovered. Discover yourself.

Melheimian Maxim 13: Dreams

Kill a dream and you kill all that dream's unborn children.

Swimming Upstream (with Charismatic Presbyterians)

Here's an interesting note from a guy who's trying something new called UpStream Project. Read on, and if you resonate, drop Scott an e-note:

Your Fifth Church systems vs. solution argument is dead on the mark.  We (the mainline church) have a system that we have sown into for decades and now we are reaping a harvest of empty pews.  Somewhere we forgot to connect kids to the adults.  We set up artificial transitions that took them out of relationships instead of into relationships.  They are hungry for connection to a community and relationship with God. They want a taste of eternity and we give them pizza.

I am just starting out and building a ministry called the Upstream Project.  Along the way I'd like to have some like-minded and like-hearted folks to talk with and share ideas with.  I have lots to talk about and not enough space here.  Would love to chat or email as time allows.  I am on a journey to change the world of church.  Seems like you are on the same path.  Glad for the company along the way.

Scott

Scott Wilcher left his family-based youth ministry in a charismatic Presbyterian church in Virginia Beach, VA, after 7 years and started a ministry called UpStream Project, whose purpose is to inspire and equip churches to reach and retain the next generation. The name comes from the example of the salmon that swims against the current to make sure the next generation gets a good start, even at the cost of its own life.

Melheimian Maxim 12: Respect

The only rule you need around your house is re-spect. Break the word apart and you find re = "again" and spect = "to look." Look again! These are your parents. Your mother went up two dress sizes and turned prematurely grey for you. Look again! Even on a day when you tell your father off, he would still jump in front of a truck to save your life. Look again! Part of you will be walking the face of the earth long after you are gone in the form of this child. Look again! If all we manage to do in our homes is re-spect that might be enough.

 

Guess the Bible Story?

I've got the roughs just about ready for the new 15 themes of Bible Song's "The Good News." (Matthew - John)

Print this out and ask kids to guess the story.

Guess the Story II

Print this out and ask kids to tell you the story.

Melheimian Maxim 11: Prayer

Most people talk to God like they talk to their dog. They expect a lot of sympathy but they don't expect a lot of answers.